Economy Minister and SaS chair Richard Sulík. (source: TASR - Martin Baumann)
Slovakia is in the grip of a government crisis with the Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party set to leave the government next week unless OĽaNO party leader Igor Matovič resigns as finance minister.
But a new poll has shown opinion is split among SaS voters on whether the party should leave the coalition government.
SaS, which has had the strongest voter support among the four parties of the ruling coalition in polls over the last year, says it can no longer work with Matovič, whose party is the strongest in the coalition, as finance minister.
In July, the party issued an ultimatum saying either Matovič must step down or its four ministers will leave the government. Matovič insists on staying, and is backed by PM Eduard Heger (OĽaNO).
Heger has held several meetings with coalition partners this month, but no solution that would make SaS stay has been found so far.
The latest survey by the AKO polling agency for JOJ television has shown that 49.3 percent of people believe SaS should leave the coalition. In contrast, 28.4 percent of respondents said the party should remain despite its demand not being met. The poll was conducted between August 15 and 18.
SaS leaving the coalition is an option mostly preferred by those supporting the opposition parties Hlas, Smer, Republika, and the non-parliamentary SNS.
But opinion is split among SaS voters.
While about a half (51.9 percent) of polled SaS voters would prefer for the party to remain in government even if its conditions are not met, 42 percent want it to leave if there is no visible sign that those demands are going to be met.
The SaS ultimatum
The coalition crisis, which was triggered in early May, deepened on June 22 after parliament broke a presidential veto on Matovič’s so-called 'family package' of support worth €1.2 billion. While the SaS voted against it, and another coalition party, Za Ľudí, abstained, the other two coalition parties, OĽaNO and Sme Rodina, managed to pass it with the help of extremist MPs.
Matovič and the SaS clashed two months ago over how to help people impacted by surging prices.
SaS, which has 20 seats in parliament, says that if Matovič is not gone by the end of August, the party’s four ministers, including the foreign affairs minister, will resign.
This would mean the coalition government will lose its majority in parliament, potentially leading to early elections. The current parliament's term lasts until March 2024 (the last election took place on February 29, 2020).
Polls favour opposition
According to a poll by the AKO agency, if elections were held in August, the opposition party Hlas would win with 19.2 percent of votes.
Smer would come in second with 14.9 percent of votes followed by the SaS, which polls best among coalition parties, with 13.1 percent.
The non-parliamentary Progressive Slovakia would come next with 9.9 percent, while Matovič’s OĽaNO would get about 8.4 percent. The party's highest level of popularity was in April 2020 when it had 29.9 percent support, according to an AKO poll.
Support for the non-parliamentary Christian Democrats runs at 6.9 percent, followed by Sme Rodina with 6.6 percent. The last party that would make it across the parliamentary 5-percent threshold is Republika with 5.3 votes.
